Cop Caught on Tape Driving Into Cyclist Will Face Charges

The officer who drove the wrong way down Jay Street and injured a cyclist near the foot of the Manhattan Bridge last month will face three misdemeanor counts filed by the Brooklyn District Attorney.

Louis Ramos, an officer with the 84th Precinct, was behind the wheel of a squad car with his partner, Paris Anderson, when they struck 61-year-old Yu Tong Chan at the intersection of Jay and Sands Street, which sees some of the heaviest bike traffic in the city. Chan was knocked off his bike and sustained a broken nose. He later reported the incident, but the officers did not.

Surveillance footage posted by 1010 WINS shows the officers hit Chan, then exit their vehicle for about four minutes before driving away. According to the Daily News, during this time the officers "helped the victim to the sidewalk and gave him tissues to clean the cuts and abrasions on his face, arms and legs." Both explained their failure to report the collision by claiming that they thought Chan had fallen off his bike after being startled by the lights and sirens of the patrol car.

The Brooklyn DA has charged Ramos with reckless driving, reckless assault, and leaving the scene of an accident. The arraignment will be held tomorrow.

Ben Fried
is the Editor-in-Chief of Streetsblog. He has been covering the movement for safer streets, effective transit, and livable cities since 2008.

So, what, are we going to go to trial and get a conviction, so that we can then enter no sentence?

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/jass jass

And this is why having more cameras around the city is a good thing.

kapes

In an odd twist, the patrol car actually DID have its lights on when passing the stopped traffic. Color me shocked.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/eLK eLK

Ian,

Yes. Developing a factual record of continual inappropriate, and false police statements and behavior is a start to changing the system.

Why is it that every time video evidence shows up it shows that NYPD officers lying?

roadblock

yeah, now that the precedent has been set for cops to beat up cyclists and get no punishment, I doubt much will come of this.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/Eric Eric McClure

“They thought Chan had fallen off his bike after being startled by the lights and sirens of the patrol car.”

Guess promotions to detective are not very likely.

ddartley

Criminals are bad. Crooked cops are worse. Who is it who’s teaching NY cops that it’s okay to lie? It’s getting imparted somewhere, somehow, and it’s an embarrassment that doesn’t belong in a world class city.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/IanD Ian Dutton

After watching a cop blow through a red light on lower Broadway, I caught up with him as he was stuck in traffic at the next red light. I asked through his open window, “if even the cops won’t follow the law, who will?” He shook his head and said I had a good point.

And I imagine at the next red light he came to, he blew right through it.

kaja

> “if even the cops won’t follow the law, who will?” He shook his head and said I had a good point.

The thing to say to the cop (other than nothing at all) is,

When you pull a man over for blowing a red, think of me, and what you just did.

http://www.charlespinckney.co.uk/ Shirty in London

Here in the UK police officers are chosen, partly, on their ability to notice details… I’d say that if the two police officers didn’t notice that they’d knocked the man off his bike they don’t have the cognitive skills required to do the job they’re employed to do.
Let’s hope the Brooklyn DA is more capable of doing what he/she is paid to.

J

Without video cameras, this would have just gone away. That is why cops continually harass and obstruct effort to film and photograph their actions. The administration, from Bloomberg to Kelly and on down the ranks is complicit in the obstruction of justice and tacit acceptance of cops breaking and bending the law at will.

We throw the book at petty criminals, but crooked cops (who are much more despicable and dangerous) get off easy.

Brooklyn

That video is an absolute nightmare – it’s an intersection I ride through every single day. It’s not enough that the traffic light at Jay and Sands is a double-cycle green with a protected right turn for cars. All manner of vehicles will slide wrong-way down Jay just to save a minute or two.

They were likely not going to an emergency call, because if that were the case, there would be no need to lie on their part, no investigation afterward and no charges. All they wanted was to leverage their lights, sirens and civil service status to get wherever they were going a little bit faster.

How does the prospect of saving those minutes sound now?

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/gecko gecko

About a month ago was nearly hit by an officer in a patrol car — after he finished talking to another in a patrol car at the Sands Street entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge — doing a u-turn on the one-way street on the other side of Sands Street at the Brooklyn Bridge entrance.

Had to yell at him while veering over to the other side of the street to keep him from hitting me.

kaja

> How does the prospect of saving those minutes sound now?

I’m sure the cops (a) are going to receive suspended sentences, and (b) regret only being caught.

That said, I am the opposite of outraged by this story. It is a relief to see charges filed. (I also bike that intersection every day, and I’ve been saved by double disc brakes and quick reflexes from cars doing exactly what this cop did.)

Oliver

I see cops driving against the direction in one-way streets here in Greenpoint all the time. The put their lights on without sirens! I am having a hard time believing those are on emergency calls.

I don’t understand what’s wrong with the police here. How can you demand respect if you don’t even get the basic things right?

J:Lai

For many drivers, the only thing stopping them from hitting bikers and pedestrians is the belief that they are likely to suffer serious negative consequences. For cops, however, the chance of suffering those consequences is much lower. Unless there is video evidence, a police officer who hits someone with his car can usually count on the support of his colleagues and the department as a whole against any allegations.

Maybe it would be good to carve out a traffic and vehicle crimes force form the NYPD, separate from the department, with the power to make arrests (including arrests of NYPD officers.)
Although maybe it would be simpler to just allocate a lot fewer cars to the NYPD and make them walk, ride bikes, or take transit.

J. Mork

“They thought Chan had fallen off his bike after being startled by the lights and sirens of the patrol car.”

Guess promotions to detective are not very likely.

Sounds more like something an assistant chief and commander would say.

In a deposition, Mr. Moore [Cynthia Greenberg’s lawyer] said, Mr. Smolka said that he did not intend to kick Ms. Greenberg, and that the blow may have resulted from her rocking back and forth, bringing her head into contact with his knee.

Shame on the cop – they were hoping the old man wouldnt report and they would get away, I hope justice is served.

http://www.carfreebaltimore.com Mark

Fines and jail sentences have to be increased for drivers hitting peds/bikers. It’s not uncommon for punishments involving property theft/damage to be heftier than for careless driving.

mike

interestingly i’ve seen police on that corner for the past few days giving tix to drivers going the wrong way

Paul

I’m not a cop.

But, if I was that cop in the vid, I would have picked the guy up, gotten him medical attention, called for an investigator, then written him a ticket for failing to heed and give way to an emergency vehicle with it’s lights and sirens in full display.

The, so called, crime here (violation of Police Policy, actually), is that the cop failed to respond in the proper manner…i.e.-did not call an EMT, did not report the accident and request an investigator.

Some have hypothesized that this cop “probably wasn’t even going to an real emergency”. I do not disagree with that, but, that would be a separate issue and an actual chargeable crime that the cop would have to answer to in a real court…

…and, therein lies the injustice.

J C

Paul,

So, when you hear a siren, you immediately look for something coming from the opposite direction of traffic? I think perhaps you are at least semi-intelligent and would look at the direction from which traffic should actually be coming to spot the lights.

But then again, the cop could have gotten out and shot the guy three times and you’d still be saying the criminal got what he deserved.

J C

Phil Witt

I was involved in a collision with a NYC police mini-vehicle in Central Park on Labor Day,, Sept. 6, 2010 at approx. 6:30 PM.
I was knocked unconscious and taken to the emergency room.